Terri Wangard grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, during the Lombardi Glory Years. Her first Girl Scout badge was the Writer. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in library science, she lives in southeastern Wisconsin. She can frequently be found attending air shows. She serves as secretary of the ACFW Wisconsin Southeast Chapter and is the Carol Contest coordinator.
Visit Terri Wangard online
Listen for the Chickadees
She’s loved him forever. He’s never seen her as more than a memory from home. Then Pearl Harbor changes everything. December 7, 1941 shatters the illusion that anyone is safe. Navy nurse Gloria Bloch wakes to the thunder of enemy planes over Pearl Harbor, certain of only one thing: John Walsh, the boy she has loved since childhood, is far from danger aboard an aircraft carrier. Or so she believes. When panicked American gunfire brings John down over the harbor, their reunion is brief and breathtaking, forged in chaos neither can escape. As the Second World War drives the United States into the Pacific conflict, Gloria and John are swept onto separate paths of duty. Gloria serves aboard the hospital ship USS Serenity, tending shattered bodies and wounded souls. John flies combat missions as a Navy fighter pilot and combat photographer, risking everything to document a war that refuses to leave him untouched. Their paths cross again and again in fleeting moments between air raids and surgeries, courage and fear, longing and loss. With every meeting, the feelings they have buried deepen. But war demands more than love. It demands sacrifice, tests faith, and steals time without warning. When separation stretches into silence, Gloria must face the terrifying possibility that hope itself has become another casualty of war.
- ISBN: B0GLJ34YBT
- Publisher: Scrivenings Press
Interview with Terri Wangard 2026
Writing Through War: A Conversation with Terri Wangard
Interview by: Tiffany Amber Stockton
Some writers choose their era. Terri Wangard was chosen by hers. What began as a single novel inspired by a cache of family letters from postwar Germany has grown into a body of work rooted in the Second World War. Now, with her upcoming release Listen for the Chickadees (Scrivenings Press, March 10, 2026), Wangard brings her historian's eye and a nurse's-eye view of the Pacific theater to life in a story of love, duty, and faith tested by distance and danger.
Navy nurse Gloria Bloch and fighter pilot John Walsh (childhood sweethearts separated by the chaos of Pearl Harbor) find their paths crossing again and again aboard a hospital ship and across the vast Pacific. It’s a story built on logistics and longing. How do you sustain a romance when one character is treating the wounded and the other is flying combat missions? Wangard's answer is characteristically precise. "She's a nurse on a hospital ship. He's a fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier. The only way to bring them together and sustain a romance was wounding him," she explains. "The wounds had to be serious enough to warrant sending him to the hospital ship rather than staying in the carrier's infirmary, but not serious enough for the Navy to send him home. Keeping it credible was a challenge."
Where History Begins
Wangard grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, earning her first Girl Scout badge in writing before going on to earn a bachelor's degree in history and a master's in library science. That storyteller's instinct and the researcher's discipline runs through everything she does. Her entry into WWII fiction was personal. "My first book was inspired by family history in Germany," she says. "A collection of letters written in 1946–1947 by distant cousins offer a glimpse of their lives before, during, and after the war. Much is unknown, and I created a story for them."
That was meant to be her only WWII novel. An editor's practical advice that a series would improve her chances of a contract kept her in the era. She has never entirely left it, though she hints that may be about to change. When asked to complete the sentence "In the future, I will…" her answer is immediate: "veer out of wartime settings."
Research Beyond the Archive
Wangard describes herself as "a stickler for accuracy." While writing Listen for the Chickadees, she kept a timeline of the USS Enterprise's movements at hand alongside a map of the Pacific. Memoirs are her preferred research source. The small and large incidents they contain become raw material she can shape to reveal character while remaining true to the record. She will not, she says firmly, "falsify things like the strict regulations for hospital ships."
Her research has not been confined to libraries, though. She has ridden in a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress, and the experience permanently altered her manuscripts. "B-17s are noisy. I could not hear someone standing right in front of me. Forget about what you see in movies like Memphis Belle. I went home and changed my manuscripts." The physical reality like the tightness of the plane, the gymnastics required to move through it, the bitter cold at altitude, and the oxygen masks made vivid what Hollywood had smoothed over. "Today we thrill to watch a B-17 fly over," she observes, "but there was nothing glamorous about serving in them. Nerves of steel were required."
Faith Without a Sermon
Faith runs through Wangard's novels, but quietly. "I don't like preachy novels and work to avoid that," she says. Her approach is relational rather than rhetorical. Usually, someone with strong faith comes alongside someone who is struggling. The model for this actually came from a personal experience, not from writing novels. "Years ago, someone became quite pushy with me. She didn't even know me. That’s not how I want to portray Christians. I want to tell the truth in love and be respectful."
She finds the wartime setting naturally suited to this kind of faith. It wasn’t triumphant, but tested. "There’s enough drama in the war to create highly emotional moments and drive the characters to their knees," she says. And in writing about a conflict whose outcome is known, she finds a particular kind of theological grounding. "We see God's hand in all of it. War may not seem like light and momentary troubles, but we set our minds on things above."
Writing about sacrifice has made Wangard more attentive to what modern Americans have been spared. "I think of how Americans, for the most part, were united during the war. I think of how people had to go without because of rationing. The men were gone, and the women had to carry on by themselves with home maintenance, childcare, and working in factories." Brief moments like the solidarity after 9/11 or the empty shelves during the COVID pandemic offer partial glimpses of what that generation endured as a sustained reality. "For the most part, we don't know what it's like to sacrifice like they did during the war."
Community and Craft
Wangard serves as secretary of the ACFW Wisconsin Southeast Chapter and coordinates the Carol Contest. Both of these roles actually complement, rather than compete with, her writing. "Writing is a solitary occupation. We need the friendships of other writers," she says. Critique sessions with local writers have generated ideas and helped her identify what isn't working. Serving others in the writing community is, for her, a form of reciprocity. "It’s better to give than to receive."
Her own trajectory as a writer has shifted recently. For years, writing was a weekend and early-morning pursuit, fitted around other demands. The closure of her family's business last autumn changed that. "I have time to devote to writing. It’s now a primary focus instead of when-I-have-time." What that increased focus will produce (and in what setting) is something readers will likely be watching closely. She has already completed one new project and is exploring other time periods. More is definitely on the horizon.
Listen for the Chickadees by Terri Wangard released March 10, 2026, from Scrivenings Press. Learn more at terriwengard.com.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Tiffany Amber Stockton has embellished stories since childhood, thanks to a very active imagination and notations of talking entirely too much. Honing those skills led her to careers as an award-winning and best-selling author and speaker, while also working as a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help them get rooted in truth and live a life of purpose.
Currently, she lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two teenagers and five cats in southeastern Kentucky. In her 20+ years as a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and has agent representation with Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. "
Interview by: Tiffany Amber Stockton
Some writers choose their era. Terri Wangard was chosen by hers. What began as a single novel inspired by a cache of family letters from postwar Germany has grown into a body of work rooted in the Second World War. Now, with her upcoming release Listen for the Chickadees (Scrivenings Press, March 10, 2026), Wangard brings her historian's eye and a nurse's-eye view of the Pacific theater to life in a story of love, duty, and faith tested by distance and danger.
Navy nurse Gloria Bloch and fighter pilot John Walsh (childhood sweethearts separated by the chaos of Pearl Harbor) find their paths crossing again and again aboard a hospital ship and across the vast Pacific. It’s a story built on logistics and longing. How do you sustain a romance when one character is treating the wounded and the other is flying combat missions? Wangard's answer is characteristically precise. "She's a nurse on a hospital ship. He's a fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier. The only way to bring them together and sustain a romance was wounding him," she explains. "The wounds had to be serious enough to warrant sending him to the hospital ship rather than staying in the carrier's infirmary, but not serious enough for the Navy to send him home. Keeping it credible was a challenge."
Where History Begins
Wangard grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, earning her first Girl Scout badge in writing before going on to earn a bachelor's degree in history and a master's in library science. That storyteller's instinct and the researcher's discipline runs through everything she does. Her entry into WWII fiction was personal. "My first book was inspired by family history in Germany," she says. "A collection of letters written in 1946–1947 by distant cousins offer a glimpse of their lives before, during, and after the war. Much is unknown, and I created a story for them."
That was meant to be her only WWII novel. An editor's practical advice that a series would improve her chances of a contract kept her in the era. She has never entirely left it, though she hints that may be about to change. When asked to complete the sentence "In the future, I will…" her answer is immediate: "veer out of wartime settings."
Research Beyond the Archive
Wangard describes herself as "a stickler for accuracy." While writing Listen for the Chickadees, she kept a timeline of the USS Enterprise's movements at hand alongside a map of the Pacific. Memoirs are her preferred research source. The small and large incidents they contain become raw material she can shape to reveal character while remaining true to the record. She will not, she says firmly, "falsify things like the strict regulations for hospital ships."
Her research has not been confined to libraries, though. She has ridden in a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress, and the experience permanently altered her manuscripts. "B-17s are noisy. I could not hear someone standing right in front of me. Forget about what you see in movies like Memphis Belle. I went home and changed my manuscripts." The physical reality like the tightness of the plane, the gymnastics required to move through it, the bitter cold at altitude, and the oxygen masks made vivid what Hollywood had smoothed over. "Today we thrill to watch a B-17 fly over," she observes, "but there was nothing glamorous about serving in them. Nerves of steel were required."
Faith Without a Sermon
Faith runs through Wangard's novels, but quietly. "I don't like preachy novels and work to avoid that," she says. Her approach is relational rather than rhetorical. Usually, someone with strong faith comes alongside someone who is struggling. The model for this actually came from a personal experience, not from writing novels. "Years ago, someone became quite pushy with me. She didn't even know me. That’s not how I want to portray Christians. I want to tell the truth in love and be respectful."
She finds the wartime setting naturally suited to this kind of faith. It wasn’t triumphant, but tested. "There’s enough drama in the war to create highly emotional moments and drive the characters to their knees," she says. And in writing about a conflict whose outcome is known, she finds a particular kind of theological grounding. "We see God's hand in all of it. War may not seem like light and momentary troubles, but we set our minds on things above."
Writing about sacrifice has made Wangard more attentive to what modern Americans have been spared. "I think of how Americans, for the most part, were united during the war. I think of how people had to go without because of rationing. The men were gone, and the women had to carry on by themselves with home maintenance, childcare, and working in factories." Brief moments like the solidarity after 9/11 or the empty shelves during the COVID pandemic offer partial glimpses of what that generation endured as a sustained reality. "For the most part, we don't know what it's like to sacrifice like they did during the war."
Community and Craft
Wangard serves as secretary of the ACFW Wisconsin Southeast Chapter and coordinates the Carol Contest. Both of these roles actually complement, rather than compete with, her writing. "Writing is a solitary occupation. We need the friendships of other writers," she says. Critique sessions with local writers have generated ideas and helped her identify what isn't working. Serving others in the writing community is, for her, a form of reciprocity. "It’s better to give than to receive."
Her own trajectory as a writer has shifted recently. For years, writing was a weekend and early-morning pursuit, fitted around other demands. The closure of her family's business last autumn changed that. "I have time to devote to writing. It’s now a primary focus instead of when-I-have-time." What that increased focus will produce (and in what setting) is something readers will likely be watching closely. She has already completed one new project and is exploring other time periods. More is definitely on the horizon.
Listen for the Chickadees by Terri Wangard released March 10, 2026, from Scrivenings Press. Learn more at terriwengard.com.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Tiffany Amber Stockton has embellished stories since childhood, thanks to a very active imagination and notations of talking entirely too much. Honing those skills led her to careers as an award-winning and best-selling author and speaker, while also working as a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help them get rooted in truth and live a life of purpose.
Currently, she lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two teenagers and five cats in southeastern Kentucky. In her 20+ years as a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and has agent representation with Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. "
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